Attack victim Alan Barnes has finally found a house he can call home, and will be staying on Tyneside.

The disabled pensioner has had an offer accepted on a two-bedroomed property, just streets away from the house he bought with well-wishers’ cash, after he was assaulted earlier this year.

Frail Alan broke his collar bone when he was pushed to the ground by legal high user Richard Gatiss in a crime that sickened Britain.

Alan Barnes

After the Chronicle revealed the pensioner was too afraid to return to his Gateshead bungalow local mum Katie Cutler set-up an online fund-raising page to raise some cash to help Alan get back on his feet.

The collection, which initially aimed to make £500, was inundated with donations, with well-wishers pledging more than £330,000. Alan used just under half the money to buy a new home in Low Fell in April.

But he later told the Chronicle he was struggling to settle in the house, and had put it on the market so that he could start a new life in Shetland.

Attack victim Alan Barnes receives his cheque from Katie Cutler at the Old Assembly Rooms in Newcastle

However, the 68-year-old has now found a house on nearby Baden Powell Street where he feels he will be happy. And Alan was delighted when his offer of £115,000 was accepted.

He said: “As soon as I saw it it felt like the right house. I have really taken to it.”

Alan’s life changed forever when he was set-upon by Gatiss as he moved his wheelie bin outside his bungalow, on Hillside Place in Low Fell, in January.

Richard Gatiss (Image: Northumbria Police)

The 4ft 6ins pensioner, who has suffered from height and growth problems since birth, was pushed to the ground by the thug, who was later jailed.

Alan’s plight touched hearts across the UK and beyond prompting donations to flood into Katie’s fund.

In April he bought a two-bedroomed terrace house on Wesley Street for £150,000. But Alan struggled to settle in to the property, and was not happy there even after we teamed-up with the Sunday Mirror to give the pad a luxury makeover.

Alan said: “A lot of the furniture I got I have given to charity shops, mainly St Oswald’s Hospice.”

Alan Barnes, outside the new home in Gateshead he is buying at the moment

“Nothing came of me going to Shetland,” he said. “I was expecting someone to contact me through God but they didn’t.

Alan has signed the paperwork for his new house and is hoping to move in in the new year.

“It was built in the 80s and it’s nice and light,” he said. “There’s a nice window at the front. It’s two-bedroomed and it’s got a little garden facing south. It doesn’t need anything done to it, it’s done out very nicely. ”